News bits 'n chunk: DJT's war on democracy update: About Medicare Advantage plans; Etc.

The Independent reports about a new filing by DJT in his attacks on a gag order telling him to stop inciting violence:

Donald Trump’s supporters unleashed a wave of death threats and antisemitic and homophobic messages to the judge overseeing his fraud trial, as well as his chief clerk, according to a state court filing this week.

A filing to support New York Justice Arthur Engoron’s opposition to a freeze on a gag order in the case includes a statement from the court’s top security official, who has collected “hundreds of threats, disparaging and harassing comments and antisemitic messages” that followed the former president’s harassment.

Federal prosecutors – who are seeking a separate gag order – shared those threats with the federal appeals court judges who will decide whether Mr Trump should be gagged in his election interference case.

But on Friday, the former president’s attorneys dismissed those threats as “irrelevant”.

DJT's brazen threats are beyond insulting. We're in an all-out war against morally rotted, kleptocratic radical right dictatorship.

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Politico reports about some people's reactions to private sector Medicare Advantage plans, thousands of obnoxious ads for which are currently carpet bombing cable TV: 

‘It was stunning': Bipartisan anger aimed at 

Medicare Advantage care denials

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is increasingly concerned that insurance companies are preying on seniors

Enrollment in Medicare’s private-sector alternative is surging — and so are the complaints to Congress.

More than 30 million older Americans are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, wooed by lower premiums and more benefits than traditional Medicare offers.

But a bipartisan group of lawmakers is increasingly concerned that insurance companies are preying on seniors, and, in some cases, denying care that would otherwise be approved by traditional Medicare.

“It was stunning how many times senators on both sides of the aisle kept linking constituent problems with denying authorizations for care,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in an interview, referring to a bevy of complaints from colleagues during a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing.

Lawmakers are peppering the Biden administration with demands for reforming the commonly used tool called prior authorization, the process in which health insurers require patients to get insurer approval ahead of time for certain treatments or medications.

It “has turned into a process of basically just stopping people from getting care,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), leader of the House Progressive Caucus.

But Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said some hospitals in his state won’t take Medicare Advantage plans any more. “We can’t do it because we can’t afford the constant chasing from all the denials,” he said.

The reason that insurance companies are pushing so hard is that the government pays more per person that it pays for regular Medicare. How much more? It's hard to tell. Apparently, there is a modest increase in premiums that Advantage plans get. Added to that there's possibly a lot of fraud. A watchdog source commented:

These health plans and hundreds of others are part of Medicare Advantage, a program created by Congress in 2003 to help stabilize health care spending on the elderly. But the plans have sharply driven up costs in many parts of the United States — larding on tens of billions of dollars in overcharges and other suspect billings based in part on inflated assessments of how sick patients are, an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has found.

Risk score errors triggered nearly $70 billion in “improper” payments to Medicare Advantage plans from 2008 through 2013 — mostly overbillings, according to government estimates. Federal officials refused to identify health plans suspected of overcharging Medicare, citing agency policy that keeps many business records confidential. The Center is suing to make these records public.

Risk scores of Medicare Advantage patients rose sharply in plans in at least 1,000 counties nationwide between 2007 and 2011, boosting taxpayer costs by more than $36 billion over estimated costs for caring for patients in standard Medicare.

In more than 200 of these counties, the cost of some Medicare Advantage plans was at least 25 percent higher than the cost of providing standard Medicare coverage. The wide swing in costs was most evident in five states: South Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and Arkansas.

Some academic experts and researchers believe the increase in risk scores is more likely to reflect aggressive billing than a rapid deterioration in patients’ health.

For-profit capitalism just doesn’t seem to be compatible with low-cost, easy to access health care. That probably should not be any surprise. In America, private insurance outside of Medicare is more expensive, complex and difficult to access than any other country on Earth. Why would it be any different for government programs that are turned over to the capitalists?

With so much money at stake, it is not surprising that the insurance industry has fired up a major propaganda and lobbying campaign, making it hard to understand the situation. One source wrote:

Medicare Advantage Industry Continues to 

Mislead Public to Protect Their Overpayments 

“MediScare Ads” Falsely Claim Medicare “Cuts”

In our CMA Alert referenced above, we highlighted some of the insurance industry’s misleading ads, and the culprits behind them, including the industry-funded Coalition for Medicare Choices and Better Medicare Alliance. We also discussed how the industry is falsely framing these MA payment adjustments as Medicare “cuts.” 

[Insurance] “organizations representing Medicare Advantage plans are running ads accusing the White House of cutting seniors’ benefits — a tactic the industry has used before to avoid changes to the program.”  

Fact checking industry ads: 

Ad #1 states: “Medicare Advantage saves taxpayers billions every year by delivering basic benefits at 85% of the cost of original Medicare.” 

Verdict: FALSE.

FACT: According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), “private plans in the aggregate have never produced savings for Medicare” [emphasis added]; see the summary of their March 2022 report, which also highlighted that while nearly all MA plan sponsor bids are below the cost of traditional Medicare, “[t]hese efficiencies are shared exclusively by the companies sponsoring MA plans and MA enrollees in the form of extra benefits. The taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries who fund the MA program do not realize any savings from MA plan efficiencies” [emphasis added].

In other words, savings in the for-profit plans is a propaganda mirage, i.e., an industry lie. As time passes, one can assume that Advantage plans will continue to ratchet up efforts to squeeze out every possible penny of profit. 

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From the Christianity vs. Secular Democracy Files: USA Today reports:

Can 12-step programs be required for release from prison?

West Virginia is the latest state to end a rule requiring that inmates eligible for parole must complete a religious-based 12-step substance abuse disorder recovery program before being released.

The move comes after Andrew Miller, a formerly incarcerated man and atheist in West Virginia, repeatedly refused to participate in the religious program at several state jails. He called the requirement “religious coercion," according to court records. Prison officials rejected his complaints five times before two groups – American Atheists and Mountain State Justice – sued the leadership at the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Miller's behalf.

After a months-long legal battle, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin in July denied West Virginia’s motion to dismiss the case and required state prison officials to remove the state’s religious programming from Miller’s parole eligibility requirements.

“Although Mr. Miller has no entitlement to parole, the record strongly suggests that he would already have been released, but for maintaining his objections to an unconstitutional policy,” Goodwin said. He also said there was an “undeniably religious nature of the program.”

Miller was released from Saint Mary's Correctional Center and Jail in October after completing the rest of the division's requirements.

The war that Christianity is waging on secularism and democracy is on all possible fronts the crusaders can think to wage war. The Christian nationalism wealth and power movement is dead serious about obliterating secularism everywhere in American society, government and commerce.